Calgary Sun Interview

HOLLYWOOD — There are those who believe Matt Damon is living a fairy-tale existence. At 34, he can command upwards of $10-million US a picture. He has dated a string of beautiful actresses including Winona Ryder, Minnie Driver, Julia Stiles, Penelope Cruz and Eva Mendez.

He has worked with some of Hollywood’s top directors, including Robert Redford, Martin Scorsese, Steven Soderbergh, Anthony Minghella and Doug Liman, and he passes on more projects than he accepts.

“I’m suddenly hot again. Before Ocean’s Eleven and The Bourne Identity, I was pretty cool. I had a boxoffice slump with The Legend of Bagger Vance and All the Pretty Horses,” says Damon.

“This whole hot and cold thing is completely ridiculous and totally beyond an actor’s control. It’s a really insecure, bizarre profession and it’s compounded with the whole celebrity and fame thing.”

Damon says he’s proud that celebrity hasn’t blurred his artistic vision.

“There are a lot of people who get a taste of fame and are terrified of losing it. They try to protect it like a beachhead, so they make really safe choices.

“I have refused to do that. If I’m going down, then I’m going down swinging.”

It helps that Damon has made enough money that he doesn’t need to work.

“I’m definitely one of the lucky ones. If you see me in a movie that doesn’t work, it’s because I made a bad decision. There’s no trying to explain it away by saying I needed to pay the rent.”

Any conversation with Damon will invariably include questions about his longtime friend Ben Affleck, who is experiencing a career slump.

“What people forget is that Ben is a terrific actor. Maybe through some fault of his own he hasn’t made the best choices these past couple of years, but he’s just made a movie called Truth, Justice and the American Way, which is going to put him right back on top again.”

There was great speculation in the gossip press when it was revealed that Damon was not at the wedding of his friend when Affleck married Jennifer Garner in the Caribbean in June.

“I got the call. He wanted me there and I wanted to be there, but couldn’t make it because it was such a last-minute thing,” says Damon.
“They had to do it quickly and quietly to avoid all the media nonsense. It really is a shame that it’s come to the point where celebrities have to sneak around to get married.”

He laughs heartily at the suggestion that it’s now his turn to get married.

“It’s not like I’m under any pressure just because Ben got married. My friends and I have never been competitive in that way.

“Marriage is not a priority for me at the moment.”

On Aug. 26, Damon stars opposite Heath Ledger in Terry Gilliam’s special effects extravaganza, The Brothers Grimm.

It’s the story of the German brothers who became famous by researching folk tales and legends and rewriting them as fairy tales for children.

Damon prefers to see the flick as “a fairy tale about the guys who wrote fairy tales as seen through the eyes of Terry Gilliam in a wild fantasy world only he could create.”

He’s not shy about admitting he was not the first choice to star opposite Ledger.

“When I met Terry and (producer) Chuck Rogan for the first time at Chuck’s house in L.A., I asked them point blank why Johnny Depp wasn’t doing the movie.”
Damon recalls Rogan insisting they didn’t even approach Depp and that Damon was always the first choice.

“I looked Terry straight in the eye and he finally confessed,” recalls Damon.

“He admitted Miramax wouldn’t make the film with Johnny and that I was their choice. They thought Johnny was too weird and didn’t have any box-office clout.”

Damon laughs when he says Miramax signed him on and then a couple of months later Pirates of the Caribbean turned Depp into a box-office titan.

“Now the honchos at Miramax are going around saying they can’t believe they have Damon instead of Depp.

“They keep saying Johnny is having a comeback. What do they mean a comeback? The guy never went away. He kept giving great performances and never compromised.

“It just took people a little longer to realize he’s a genius.

“It’s a lesson for all of us.”

When Damon was filming Brothers Grimm in Prague two years ago he got a sweet taste of the anonymity he has sought since Good Will Hunting turned him into a media superstar.

“Heath and I could wander around Prague any time of day or night without anyone approaching us. We were just two more tourists in a city that’s become a real hot spot for Europeans.”

Damon began filming The Bourne Supremacy two weeks after finishing The Brothers Grimm, but went back to his apartment in New York between films.

“The night I arrived back in New York I dashed to the pizzeria around the corner. I got more recognition in that 20 minutes than I had in six months in Prague.

“I was jolted back into the crazy reality of this business.”

Damon will be seen this fall, starring opposite his friend George Clooney in CIA thriller Syriana, and has just completed the Scorsese action drama The Departed with Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg and Jack Nicholson.

In Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd, which will begin filming later this year, Damon will play James Wilson one of the founding officers of the CIA.

He is also agreed to play Jason Bourne for a third time in The Bourne Ultimatum.

“The studio is talking a 2007 date for Ultimatum, but that will depend upon the script. I look at the Bourne films as my insurance policy, so it’s important each one be as good, if not better, than the last.”